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OpenIDEO User Experience Map

www.Capoeira4Refugees.org

27 Dingley Pl, London EC1V 8BR, UK| Charity no: 1139987 Bidna Capoeira Limited trading as Capoeira4Refugees

The Capoeira Changemakers Program (CCP) enables users, both male and female, to customize solutions in response to the multi-dimensional challenges they face in their unique context. Particularly in the Middle East, females face very specific difficulties and uncertainties, which makes their user experience distinctly different from that of male users. Both stories are based upon real life scenarios and reflect the program’s wide range of resources and informal education opportunities.

The Idea The Capoeira Changemakers Program (CCP) is a personalized informal education initiative that develops the capabilities of local changemakers in conflict-areas so they can provide context and gender appropriate psychosocial support to children and youth in vulnerable communities.

The Female User

Name: Nayla

Age: 25

Profession: Capoeira teacher

Other key characteristics: I’m a young Palestinian Jordanian woman living in an area in East Amman, entrenched in poverty and drug abuse. Where I come from, it’s common for girls to get married before the age of 18. As a result, many of us can’t go into higher education, and lose the chance to be economically independent, learn and socialize.

The challenge: In my community, women are often discouraged from learning, playing sport, and expressing themselves. Also, there are very few opportunities for informal learning or to stay physically and socially active. With limited social outlets and support, we often feel isolated, lonely, and many of us suffer from depression. I often ask myself: what can I do to empower females around me?




An attempt to bring change

Trouble sustaining my project

I’ve always enjoyed doing sports and was excited to join a capoeira class led by C4R in my local community center. The trainer came to speak to my mum too, so she felt comfortable about me doing this new class. After training really hard for over a year and taking on more and more assisting tasks in class, I start my own female-only capoeira project. Within this space, girls and women feel emotionally and physically safe, and discover and develop their talents.

I love watching my students grow as people, stop wearing high heels to class, participate in discussions on how to stay healthy (there is a diabetes pandemic in my community), and start leaning on one another for support. The class really helps them to focus better and boosts their self-esteem. The women become more active in our community, and the younger girls do better at school.

But as the only teacher running this weekly class, I begin to worry about the limited time and resources I have to sustain the project. Also, I notice that my students face complex emotional and behavioral problems, and I don’t always know how to best help them. Many students continue to show up each week and speak about how much the capoeira classes and community mean to them. For one student, coming to class is the only time she gets to leave the house. I really need to keep this going!




Help from the Capoeira Changemakers Program

New resources and skills = new solutions

One day, I see a Facebook post advertising the innovative Capoeira Changemakers Program (CCP). I jump at this chance to submit an application; the CCP team helps me through the process because I’ve never applied for anything like this before. I’m so excited - I get accepted into the program!

The CCP’s monthly stipend allows me to grow my project and reach many more marginalized girls and women throughout Amman. Through the incredible network the CCP offers, I also connect with partners who provide additional space for our classes, allowing me to work with the young and old, including Syrian refugee girls who live in my community.

Through the Capoeira Changemakers Program, I not only develop networking skills, but also get the unique opportunity to receive professional training on how to run a social capoeira project that meets the specific needs of my students. My certification in child protection obtained through C4R also equips me to identify signs of abuse and trauma. For example, a Syrian refugee female student comes to me having experienced night terrors due to seeing her father crushed to death when her house is bombed in Aleppo. This time, I know how to properly refer her to local caseworkers who help her get the right support for her trauma symptoms.




It takes a community to tackle societal problems

Continuous growth, lasting impact and unabashed hope

I know that changing local attitudes and dealing with systemic mental health issues is incredibly hard. I regularly network with other change-makers around the world to exchange insights and learn; I really feel like I belong to an amazing community of like-minded people. By also working closely with parents and other stakeholders, I mobilize the local community to understand children’s protection needs, and those of females in particular. I use new techniques I learn from other changemakers and the program to teach my students how to play instruments, sing new songs, and master advanced capoeira movements, as well as help them develop life-skills which are useful to them.

After running the program for several years, I’ve trained up three more female trainers who run their own programs with their assistants in their own communities. We all support one another’s projects and have classes running in five new locations throughout Jordan. Through C4R, we also obtained the security clearances needed to work with refugees in the fenced-off, militarized, desert refugee camps, which are sadly still there. With the help of the CCP, I can continue empowering young females to tackle the complex societal and mental health issues they face as well as help Syrian and Iraqi refugees to integrate into the Jordanian society.

I can’t believe how far I’ve come! Thinking back, I could never have imagined being able to develop the skills and resources to help vulnerable refugees to feel safe and become agents of their own change.




The Idea The Capoeira Changemakers Program is a personalized informal education initiative that develops the capabilities of local changemakers in conflict-areas so they can provide context and gender appropriate psychosocial support to children and youth in vulnerable communities.

The Male User

Name: Khaled Age: 18 Profession: Student Other key characteristics: There is war going on in Syria, and I live in the capital city. As the conflict gets worse, people are regularly shot dead on the streets in my area and boys are taken from their beds at night to join the army. My mother and I flee to Turkey just three days before the borders close. My family is scattered throughout the Middle East, but we are lucky to be reunited with my older brother, Omar, who has deserted the Syrian army two years ago.

The challenge: Turkey is not the paradise I thought it would be. As a refugee, I’m treated like an animal by people in authority and bullied at school. Once I was supposed to have three months to study for my final exams, but the Turkish government makes last minute changes, leaving me with one day to study. I’m angry and frustrated a lot of the time. Knowing that there are thousands of refugees in my position, I really want to do something. Refugee kids here, they’re like me, frustrated, struggling, and many have bad traumas. For most of us, there isn’t anywhere to go to get help.




Desperate for change

Informal learning and skills development

I think of the good old days playing capoeira in Damascus with my friends and Iraqi refugee neighbors. I’d love to use my capoeira skills and experience to provide psychosocial support to refugee children in my new home. I start teaching capoeira to a few Syrian refugee children on the streets of the neighborhood. However, we’re often forced to cancel classes during the winter and whenever it rains. I realize we need a proper space to train, as well as additional skills to deal with the traumatic experiences of our students. Omar, who is still connected to a capoeira friends network through WhatsApp finds out about the Capoeira Changemakers Program (CCP). We submit an application, get shortlisted, interviewed and accepted into the program. Through the CCP network, we get connected to a local community center where we start an official social capoeira class with refugees boys and girls.

One of the most exciting experiences is to have the CCP staff come visit my project in Turkey. During our time together, they observe our class and support us in articulating our project goals and design plans to achieve them. We also get professional training on how to work with vulnerable children, as well as improve our marketing, monitoring and evaluation, and communication skills. These trainings are extremely relevant to our work with refugees and will help us sustain and grow our project.




Helping others also helps me Sustainability and female empowerment

Omar eventually leaves to seek asylum in France while I stay behind in Turkey with my mother. I continue to teach capoeira and even create a new class to help more children to recover from trauma and exposure to violence through movement, play, and music. I love seeing the mental and behavior shifts in my community and am constantly amazed by my students’ enthusiasm and willingness to learn. As time goes by, the children become more confident, expressive and sociable. It gives me a great sense of purpose that I can change the world – despite my refugee label.

My project eventually grows so big that I need an extra pair of hands! I tap into the CCP’s global network to recruit international volunteers to help run my social project. One of my goals is to promote gender equality through sports and help young girls to recognize their inherent value and strengths. I am so happy when a female assistant trainer agrees to volunteer in my class having learned about my project from C4R’s website. She ends up staying as a volunteer to work with my students for over a year!




Seeds are sown and growth continues New journey, new ideas, new initiatives

One day, I get a call from Omar telling me to join him in France. Although it is extremely hard to say goodbye to my students, who are like my second family, I feel comfortable leaving my project in the capable hands of my assistant trainer whom I’ve trained for over one year. I know the project will sustain and offer a safe space for many more vulnerable children and youth to learn and seek psychosocial support.

Even though I leave for France to start a new journey, I am proud to receive weekly updates and photos of my class through Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp. My project has not only survived but thrives!

One of the first things I do after settling down in France is to search for capoeira groups in the area through the CCP online platform. I not only find an adult capoeira group that I can join every week for training, but I also get help to start a new project, working with Syrian, Iraqi and Somali refugee children in my neighborhood. My students are so happy to have an Arab teacher who speaks their language and can relate to their experiences.

Thanks to the CCP, I now have the technical skills I need to provide a safe space and practical help to young people traumatized by war. No matter where I go, the huge capoeira network gives me the strength and support to continue, and makes me feel a part of an incredible global movement.

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